Amazon bans crappy USB Type-C cables
Hopefully, that prevents people from unwittingly frying their gadgets.
One Google engineer's quest to test USB-C cables sold on Amazon ended in a disaster when a particularly shoddy one fried his gadgets. Thankfully, Amazon has decided to take a stance against subpar adapters to prevent more people from going through the same thing. Benson Leung, the unfortunate engineer who sacrificed his Chromebook Pixel 2015 for our sake, reported on Google+ that the e-commerce website has officially banned substandard USB Type-C cables.
To be exact, the new line under the prohibited products list reads: "Any USB-C (or USB Type-C) cable or adapter product that is not compliant with standard specifications issued by 'USB Implementers Forum Inc.'" It's still very much possible for listings that sell offbrand (or even legit but faulty) cables to go through, though, so you shouldn't stop reading product reviews because of this new rule. And in case you ever find yourself the recipient of a defective adapter, don't forget that you can report the product to Amazon and get it kicked off the marketplace.
